For those fans of HBO’s long-running horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt, I have both good and bad news. According to Deadline, a new Tales from the Crypt series is in the works, though it won’t be an anthology and it will see the characters of the original EC Comics’ series set in a “modern context.”
Producer Gil Adler of HBO’s Crypt and Andrew Cosby, the co-creator of Syfy channel’s Eureka! are working on the new TV series that will apparently not be based on the HBO series at all, nor will it be an anthology. The new series will be based on the original comics and have an hour-long run-time.
According to Cosby, it will be “an ongoing series that uses characters from the comic books in a more modern context.” And in case you’re worried about this “modern context,” Cosby added, “It’s all about continually elevating the genre, for both existing fans of the source material and mainstream audiences.”
The original series ran for a number of years on HBO over a decade and a half ago, and was an anthology based on the comic books originally created by William Gaines. The dark wit and macabre humor in the horror episodes made Tales from the Crypt quite popular, as did the fact that it aired on HBO and thus wasn’t fettered by network censorship. Besides staying true to the sometimes graphic depictions of nudity, sex, gore and violence from the original comics, Tales from the Crypt boasted an impressive list of weekly guest stars.
I’m not sure about this “modern context,” or the fact that the new series will not be an anthology, so no introduction by the cheekily macabre Crypt Keeper and thus a major loss for this potential series. And “genre elevation” isn’t what made the original series so wickedly fun, so this new look at the controversial comic book material has me a little worried. Though the new series hasn’t picked a home yet, there is a detailed pitch for the show ready to go out, and a completed bible.